Holidays in Austen country

Discover the literary great’s hometown and other favourite haunts

By
Luke Wilson
18 April 2017

Widely regarded as one of the greatest authors of her (or any other) era, Jane Austen remains a revered writer thanks in part to her rejection of sentimentalism and wondrous use of irony, realism and satire.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of her death and with that in mind, travel firm Peregrine is offering a seven-night trip to places dear to the author’s heart. After an introduction to Austen’s London, you’ll head to her Hampshire birthplace, Steventon, and be shown around Chawton, where she wrote Emma, Mansfield Park and Persuasion, by a member of the Jane Austen Society.

Winchester will be your base for the next part of the holiday, where you’ll visit her resting place and be a given a lesson in regency dancing, one of Austen’s favourite pastimes. Day four begins with a trip to Salisbury before a drive down to Lyme Regis, a seaside town whose charms Austen was immensely enamoured by. Bath is your last port of call, a city hugely proud of its part in the Jane Austen story and the setting for the novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and film adaptations of her work. In 2017, let’s celebrate the life of one of the literary world’s finest.Dhs7,850 (hotels included, flights extra). Jun 12-19. www.peregrineadventures.com.